One husband, three kids, eight grandkids: Longtime local banker Linda Price has a big family. But throughout her long career in Juneau, she’s chosen to make it even bigger.
The Wells Fargo employee retires this Friday from 19 years as a credit manager and personal banker at the bank’s Glacier Valley branch. Through the years, Price has taken her customers in as part of her tribe, taking pride in their financial success.
Her first customers still remember her.
“I’ve seen those same customers now, 18, 19 years later, and they thank me for what I helped them with back then because they can buy a truck now, they can buy a house now. … Me leaving here, I swear I feel like they’re my friends, because every time I walk through the lobby it’s like, ‘Hi, how are you?’” Price said at a Tuesday interview at work.
Price has the kind of warm, honest presence which has helped her earn the trust of her customers. She remembers people, too. I sat with her for a financial review more than a year ago, and though I haven’t been back since, she still remembered to ask about my uncle, a high school classmate of hers.
Glacier Valley Branch Manager Tyler Davis said there’s no way to replace the human capital of an employee like Price. The relationships she has with her customers don’t grow overnight.
“They’re bringing their children back to her and saying, ‘Here’s our family banker,’ and they’re introducing them to Linda. Or they’re telling their kids stories, about how, ‘I used to be this way. This is what I did, but Linda straightened me out, showed me a different way,’” Davis said.
Wells Fargo’s Southeast District Manager Patrick Ryland said he met the news of Price’s retirement with mixed emotions.
“I’ve learned a lot from her and enjoyed the opportunity to see her prosper and grow. Her lively voice and energetic personality will be sorely missed around the office,” Ryland wrote in an email to the Empire.
Price started out at Northline Credit, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank of Alaska, which merged with Wells Fargo Financial in 2000. Wells Fargo’s Vincent Cheng, then with Northline, worked with Price when she came over from a job at Lyle’s Home Furnishings.
“The reason she’s been so successful is she looks for the best thing for the customer,” Cheng said. “And people recognize that — it’s loyalty. That’s not easy to do.”
Price often works with people who are just starting to build their credit. She’ll do a financial review and look at different tools to help them put their best foot forward, helping them on their first steps toward becoming loan ready.
She identifies when customers are ready to buy a home and stop renting, or take out a loan for a new car when they need one. When the housing bubble burst in 2008, then dipped to a low in 2012, her customers came to her for help.
“Everyone was trying to find a way forward, and Linda, in her experience, helped a lot of people,” Davis said. “Even just deciphering what they were seeing on the news in general. Because she had experience, she was trusted in providing some clarity.”
Price said she’s going to spend a lot of time with family when she retires, just “being a mom and a grandma again.” All her grandchildren are at the “fun age,” out of diapers and between 4 and 18. Price wants to watch the snowfall this winter and “pay attention to all the beauty around me that I’ve been ignoring while I am working,” she said.
But it’s not easy leaving a job she said she’s always loved.
“It’s really hard to retire because I feel like everyone is my family and I am going to be going home now, you know, to what I want to do. But thank god Juneau is around 30,000 people.”
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.
Linda Price reminisces with Vincent Cheng at the Valley branch of Wells Fargo Bank on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. Price is retiring after 19 years with Wells Fargo. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)